


Corvus Corax

by ShadySock



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Graphic deaths, Ignores everything after season 2, M/M, Magical Realism, Psychological Horror, season 1 and 2 rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:28:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadySock/pseuds/ShadySock
Summary: Kidnapped by Maroni, Oswald contacts Jim Gordon, leading to Maroni's death and setting up a chain reaction of changes. They have to work together to navigate the new dynamics in Gotham's crime syndicate.But the new games of the mob bosses aren't the only things keeping Jim up at night, the vision of a raven keeps haunting him, and threatening to pull him back into the painful past.
Relationships: Oswald Cobblepot/Jim Gordon
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Corvus Corax

The silence in the car was deafening.

Jim worried his lip and snuck glances at his father. Peter Gordon stared straight ahead with no emotion evident, which made it hard to gauge what he was thinking. He hadn't said a word since his talk with the director. Maybe part of it was exhaustion, he had driven all the way from Gotham to Chicago for this, after all. But that option was doubtful, he usually at least made vague noises when tired. Not this stony silence. 

The talk had taken over an hour, while Jim sat outside stewing in his anxiety. Only once the muffled discussion was done, both his parents left with white faces.

Eventually, his mom had crouched to his level, all red-rimmed eyes, and said,

"As long as the divorce is still going through perhaps you would do better in Gotham. It would do you good to go back in a more familiar setting.”

She had smiled but the strain around the corners told him this hadn't been her wish. It wasn't in character for her. She had fought for him with nails and teeth after his father had thrown her out with nothing but the clothes on her body. Until he relented enough to let Jim live with her in her grandmother's dingy one-room apartment.

She gave him a soft kiss on the head as a farewell, and his father took one look at Jim's scraped knuckles and knees before pointing to his car.

Jim hadn't wanted to leave with his father, had wanted to stay in Chicago with his mother and the few friends he had made, but he didn't have a choice. He had fortified that choice the moment he had decided to act out.

Ringing echoed through the car and Jim's father took the call with a curse, stopping at a red traffic light before actually speaking. When the traffic light switched to green he pushed the phone in his slack's pockets and glared at Jim.

"Some paparazzo took a nice shot of you and me walking out of the school. And do you know what the best part is? The kid you attacked was the son of _Chicago's mayor._ You stole from and punched a _mayor's kid_ ," he said. "Tomorrow morning, this will be printed in all of Gotham's gossip columns and the people will start to wonder if you're a 'problem child’, that Gotham's state attorney who's supposed to bring criminals to justice is _raising_ a will-be career criminal himself. Oh, they're gonna have a field day with this one.”

He let out a laugh but it wasn’t a pleasant sound.

Jim winced, but he couldn't bring himself to say 'sorry '. He had nothing to apologize for. The kid he had hit was a spoiled asshole, who had made a habit of taking people’s food and throwing it to the ground for his own amusement. And he touched his friend’s food one too many times. 

He had made a habit of picking on Jim's friend Sally, and she had it hard enough already. Her parents were drug addicts, and money for food was scarce, her lunches mostly consisted of dry bread with cheese, and her lean frame couldn't afford to skip one more meal. But the mayor's kid hadn't cared. He took her food, and so Jim took his money. 

He bought chocolate bars from the money for both of them. 

An hour later the mayor's kid had Jim pressed up against a wall, cussing him out. Not only cursing at Jim, but also Sally standing beside them watching on in horror, calling her a drug whore. And that was the last straw. They fought each other until his knuckles were raw and Sally's tears dried. 

"It's not like he would have particularly missed it, I only took enough for two bars and he had like a 50 dollars in his bag to begin with.”

His father sighed. "That's not the point. The point is you broke the law and that's not acceptable.”

Jim crossed his arms."Why?”

"What do you mean - 'why? It's the _law_ James, you have to adhere to it.”

"That's not an answer. I just wanted to help Sally, is that wrong? He probably would have spend it on something useless, why not give it to someone who actually needs it?”

The muscles around his father's eyes tensed and Jim knew that he was approaching dangerous territory, but he didn't care. He knew he was in the right.

"The government has determined-”

Something dangerous rose up in Jim and he snapped. 

"What do I care about the government," he hissed. "Did they help Sally? She's starving half to death but still, no one helps. Should I care about your opinion? You left me and mom to scrape by. Sally wasn't the only one who's stomach gurgled.” His breathing quickened and his thoughts raced and toppled over each other. "And what if these laws, these rules aren't fair? What if all this is - is _bullshit-"_

"Language!" Peter squeezed Jim's cheeks to force him to meet his glare. "Stop being such an egoistic brat.”

"Egoistic? I did it for Sally.”

"You said yourself you ate your fair share as well, and you both aren't the only people in the world - you can't infringe on someone else's rights because you don't like them. Everyone should be respected. Everyone has to matter or nobody does.”

A horn blasted. 

One moment his father still glared at him and the next he was thrown to the side. 

His head crashed against the side window. The door bulked in with the sound of a firework rocket shooting in the sky. White smoke burned in Jim's nostrils. An airbag deployed and swallowed his face then-

Blackout. 

For several seconds he remembered nothing.

His mind cleared once tires screeched as the car came to stop shortly before a tree. His seatbelt cut in his skin as it snapped taut.

Jim's breathing was deafening in the sudden silence. He craned his neck with a wince.

His father's head was pushed through the side window, skull oozing over the other car's hood that had collided with the driver's side. One half of the door was missing and the curled metal had snapped his torso in two, the juncture where it connected to his hip unfurled his spine.

He had died on impact.

As steady thump rung in Jim's ears and voices called from outside. Someone whimpered but he couldn't tell if it was him or the person in the other car.

The smell of burned rubber and blood forced bile up his throat. But before he could let it out his door has wrenched open, and a man and a woman freed his left foot from the warped footwell. It was stuck at a wrong angle, but not nearly as wrong as his father's neck.

Hovering faces surrounded him as he was pulled out. There were crowds around the scene, and cars parked at odd angles, a woman in bright orange sidestepped them to approach him.

She assessed Jim before being called to the other car, the words 'alive’ and 'substantially wounded’ thrown around.

Jim shook his head, overwhelmed. The mangled form of his father in his field of vision. In a second of inattention, he escaped the bystanders, barely feeling his broken foot as it limped and crumbled away under him with every step.

He didn't know his destination, didn't know what he was searching for, just that he had to get away from all the smoke and horror-

Collapsing at a bush a few feet away from the scene, sobs rocked his body. Something touched his hip and for a second he thought they had found him. But when he glanced up-

He came face to face with the black eyes of a raven.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This was the Prologue, the first chapter will be set in the normal season 1 timeline. :D


End file.
